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Monday, May 25, 2009

Last night on Britain's Got Talent (BGT), my fears for Susan Boyle, which have arisen over the last couple of weeks, following her spectacular performance on her stunning BGT debut, were sadly realised!

I don't know about you, but during the last two weeks, I have felt the expectations building up in a way that must have put huge pressure on her. As Simon Cowell says on the video below:

"The whole world is watching Susan Boyle perform tonight. I wouldn't want to be standing where she is right now!"

Well, in the event, sadly, last night... that pressure showed!

In the BGT semi-final last night, Susan Boyle was clearly very nervous. Right from the first note of 'Memory', the 'Cats musical classic', Susan's voice cracked and she missed the note. Her breathing seemed to me laboured... and she knew it. You can see her in the video... clutching her tummy following that note. As a result, the combination of the pressure on her and the knowledge that she had missed that important first note also affected her timing... and it all came close to falling apart for her.

To her credit.... she kept on and she did manage to pick herself up about halfway through the song... but again at the end... I'm afraid she had difficulty maintaining that very difficult high note... her voice quavering badly!

What do you think? If you missed her performance last night, you can judge for yourself. Here's Susan Boyle singing 'Memory', from the classic musical 'Cats' on Britain's Got Talent semi-final last night:

On her debut, there is no question Susan 'nailed' 'I Dreamed A Dream'. Last night... she didn't 'nail' 'Memory', arguably, a much more difficult song. The nerves and the pressure... sadly beat her!

Nevertheless, it was still a 'goodish' performance, and there's no doubting her obvious talent... she has a remarkable voice and can sing... no question about that! She also has a capturing personality... if slightly 'oddball'!

If she's going to win this year's BGT, Susan needs to get hold of herself, calm down and dominate her totally understandable nerves. She'll need to show us her 'real stuff' next time round... and once more 'nail' whatever song she chooses. She will also need to be careful with that choice!

I like her a lot. I love the joy she clearly feels when she sings for us. It's an intrinsic part of the charm we all recognise in her. I also like her personality with that hip swivelling stuff when she's excited... though some disagree. One comment I saw says "it was cute once... maybe... but it's time to move on". Trouble is... it wouldn't be her then would it? I like her as she is, that's part of her 'oddball' charm... and her 'man of the moment'... Piers Morgan, thinks so too!

"I'm also never going to forget what happened to me at 10:32pm last night.

Because that was the moment when Susan Boyle ran down a flight of stairs at the Fountain Studios in Wembley, North London, flung herself into my arms, and planted a five-second 'smacker' right bang on my lips!

It wasn't entirely unexpected.

A few minutes earlier, Susan had declared her feelings towards me in a rather more public way by dancing a little jig of joy on stage after winning last night's first Britain's Got Talent semi-final, and shouting: 'THIS IS FOR YOU, PIERSY BABY!'

But that was positively restrained compared to what happened backstage.

To say Susan was pleased at getting through to the final is probably the understatement of the century. You have to remember that until a month ago nobody had ever heard of her, but now she is the most downloaded, and talked about, woman on the planet. The pressure that comes with all that attention is absolutely huge, and I could tell she was incredibly nervous when I spotted her standing on her own in a corner backstage before the show started.

Then she came out and missed her very first note on Memory, and I think everyone watching feared it had finally got to her.

But Susan quickly recovered, got into her stride, and ended up delivering an absolutely stunning version of the Cats musical classic that brought house down, and thrilled the world all over again just as she did in her original audition.

If you thought she looked thrilled on stage, you should have seen her off it. She was absolutely exploding with excitement, relief and pure, unrestrained joy.

'You did it!' I said to her, as I spied her heading up the stairs near the judges' dressing room area.

'Oh Piersy!' she shouted, then skipped down the stairs, jumped on me and kissed me full on the lips for quite some time.

'I've been kissed now!' she laughed, then she danced another jig, and ran off again.

I'll be dining out on that for the rest of my life!

If you agree with my comment and thought Susan Boyle looked nervous when she stepped on stage to sing Memory, you'd be right. That's because during rehearsals, Susan nearly fell over as she walked toward her microphone, on the stage.

More evidence of her obvious nerves can be found on Susan's BGT blog, when she said, "I got a bit of shock during rehearsals... I nearly fell flat on my face"!

Following this close call, to keep accidents at bay, the soles of Susan's shoes were apparently scored so they gripped better and Susan breathed a sigh of relief when she made it across the stage.

The Lothian lady enjoyed her time backstage preparing... although the pampering made her a little perplexed.

She told us, "Every few minutes, someone comes up to me and asks me to back to make-up".

"I've been in there three times already - but I keep going back again.

It's all going to be very thick by the time we get to show time.

It's a job that's never finished... like painting the Forth Bridge!"

Well... one thing those horrid people can't make any more stupid comments about are her eyebrows. (as they have done). These have clearly been worked on... and she looked very good and still very much herself. As I say, she does have an 'oddball' sense of humour and capturing personality.

I very much hope she does a little better for the Britain's Got Talent Final... and hope she wins... but lots to do... and she hasn't got this in the bag... yet!